Ship's Log
by RRShowFICTION
Summary: The President and Capital of the Federation has been captured by the rebels. The only ship that was there at the time: The Nisos, has fled with the power to bring down the entire rebel fleet. This is their story. Novelization of my FTL game as I play it.
1. Intro

The fall of The Federation meant that countless systems across the galaxy would fall to the Rebels and piracy would reign supreme. But that didn't mean that it was over. At the Federation capital, President Dux was being held by the rebels and was ordered to hand over the launch codes for the stockpile of missiles that the Federation had been stockpiling but instead of giving them the codes he sent details he had overheard from the rebel leader along with his strategy to the only remaining Federation ship in the hanger bays; The Nisos.  
>As soon as the data was received by the Crew, its captain, Jorlan, awoke with a start to find that not only had the order to evacuate the sector been given hours ago, but that there was also a message from the President himself! He rushed to the console and read the message:<p>

"_If you are reading this then it is too late, the rebels have taken command of our fair capital and captured myself, President Magna Dux.  
>You are the last hope of the Federation that we have slaved over millennia to create and uphold, your mission is to travel from here to the set evacuation co-ordinates that have been given to you along with the access codes in this document. The Minister of War will be forced to listen to you once he sees those codes and you are to show him this document along with the schematics of the Rebel Flagship that our spies have managed to acquire, so that he can form a strategy and beat this rebellion before the Federation is eradicated forever and the galaxy is lost forever.<br>You men are the only hope for the survival of life as we know it. Tell no one of this mission._

Godspeed,

_President Magna Dux II of the Galactic Federation_

_ACCESS CODES – PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL:_

_UWRHJGHD-GZCCLZVA  
>KNFUPZAM-HMQPFZKV<br>NFWXHJFU-JPJHSSXS  
>ASKXDYLT-FLDLXGTC<br>SDBDDNYX-SSFNASNH_

After Jorlan had finished reading the message he tried to close it but it seemed to replicate itself and hide amongst the regular files of the ship, protection and insurance, he guessed.  
>"Wake up! We have a mission and we need to go <em>NOW!<em>" Jorlan yelled over the intercom of the ship, startling the other only other two members aboard the ship.  
>"What about the rest of the crew? They're in a meeting with the Presi-" Tai Li was cut off as an explosion shook the ship as it powered up, she tried to look at the presidential tower through the view port but there was nothing there, just a pillar of smoke.<br>"Forget the others, they can't make it in time. We have a mission from the President himself." Jorlan said flatly, his voice conveying none of his feelings.  
>The ship lurched forward as the thrusters gave a mighty roar and the hanger seemed to vanish from around them. Instantly small, one man rebel fighters were after them, trying to stop them from escaping.<br>"Hold on! This is going to cut it a little close!" Jorlan yelled from the cockpit as the FTL drive finished charging, the shields were starting to weaken and the endless barrage of lasers would soon be directly tearing the hull apart, this was the only option if not suicidal. The gravity of the planet would flatten them if they were too far down in the atmosphere but too high and they would be decimated by the rebel ships, not too mention they might hit a ship on the way out.  
>"Are you doing what i think you—Oof!" Tai exclaimed as she was thrown across the room by the force of the FTL jump.<p>

"Are they doing what i think they're doing?" The rebel Admiral mused as the small federation cruiser came into firing range. His suspicions were confirmed as there was a sudden flash of light and then the ship they were trying to stop vanished.  
>"They have the plans of the Flagship! FIND THEM!" The rebel commander yelled down his intercom to the Admiral. He didn't need telling twice and in less than two minutes the whole rebel fleet was gone from The Capital, following the last known jump signature, chasing the one tiny ship that could be their downfall and destruction...<p>

The chase was on, the saga had begun.


	2. Sector 1, Jump 1

The Nisos materialised in the first co-ordinates that Jorlan thought of – Sigma Prime, his last station before the uprising.

"You could have gotten us killed!" Tai Li yelled as she stormed into the cockpit.  
>"But I didn't! That's what matters. Anyway, it's not like I had much of a choice!" Jorlan retorted to the Zoltan. In all of their time serving in the Federation together he had never really studied Tai Li, if it wasn't for the fact that she glowed green she could have passed for a human, she had an average build and a soft face, with long, luminescent hair that cascaded down her back and reached her waist, her eyes were her most stunning feature though; bright green orbs that hung in her head, they looked right through you as if looking through you or even into your soul. Now that he thought about it, she was quite beautiful.<p>

"Hey! Are you listening? I asked you where we are!" Tai's angry voice forced him back to reality and back to his mission.  
>"Wha...? Oh, we're at Sigma Prime. You should know, we were here just over a month ago"<br>"Really? Oh yeah!" She exclaimed, noticing the glassy blue surface (or lack thereof) of the planet of water that they knew as Sigma Prime.

"Are you two lovebirds going to be exchanging love notes all day or are we going to be going somewhere soon?" A voice crackled from the intercom.  
>"Hey!" they both yelled in unison.<br>"What? Can't blame me for telling the truth!" The voice chuckled. The voice belonged to the other member of the crew who had been on the ship when they had left The Capital, a slug named Mort. He looked like a giant variety of your common earth slug, just without the slime everywhere.

Without a word, Tai left the bridge, most likely to shout at Mort now. Jorlan sighed as he checked the sector map and available jump points, nothing remarkable about the selection, just one jump to a store. As the fleet would take time to mobilise he decided to check the cameras and see what Tai was shouting at Mort for, after all, it wasn't eavesdropping if they know that the cameras were there, right?

Tai stormed across the ship to give Mort a piece of her mind, how rude could he get? Saying something like that? As she walked into the weapons room Mort saw her and she could have sworn he shrunk a few inches.

"Want to say that again?" She dared Mort to repeat what he had said while she was in the cockpit.

"Uhh... I'm g-good thanks" Mort managed to stutter out, quailing under the glare that he was receiving.

"Good!" Tai's face lit up as she walked out of the room, goddamn women and their moods.

"You guys done? Are we set to go? Cause we still have a fleet on our asses." Jorlan's voice came in over the intercom, sounding slightly worried as the fleet came ever closer,

"I guess" Mort sighed

"Yup!" Tai seemed to cheer up immensely once she was done reprimanding the two men.

"Then let's go! We have no time to waste! The only beacon we have is a store so get your credits!" Jorlan said as he activated the FTL drive and the ship moaned and lurched into hyperspace, their jump signatures vanishing just as the rebel fleet arrived.

"Damn it! We lost them! Split and scourge the entire sector until we find them!" Admiral Douglas yelled to his troops, who wasted no time in splitting up and leaving the jump beacon to explore the uncharted sections for the Federation ship that they were so desperate to find.

"If they're not found then all of our efforts will be for nothing! All those killed in the conquests and liberations, gone! We can't let the Federation win again!" The rebel commander shouted to Admiral Douglas.

"I know, but right now we only have one ship to find. It can't be that hard, can it?"

"I guess not. Keep going Admiral" The commander said before signing off.

Once he was sure that the Commander was gone Admiral Douglas sighed and whispered to himself.  
>"I hope I'm right..."<p> 


	3. Sector 1, Jump 2-3

When the Nisos came out of hyperspace there was no station, but there was a network of strange ships that served as the storefront. As soon as Jorlan opened the message frequency his dashboard lit up with offers from the ships but as the scrap he would have to trade was minimal he decided that he couldn't afford upgrades for the ship and told his crewmates that there was no business to be had here.

"But I wanted to see the stores!" Sulked Tai as she was denied the opportunity.  
>"Well would you like to buy some weapons or systems for the ship? Because that's all they're selling." Jorlan told her flatly.<p>

"Well fine." Tai huffed, not convinced that they were just shipwrights.

As the ship passed the crowd Jorlan saw that one of the ships was selling slaves, or at least he saw people of all species in chains with price tags on them. Horrible practice, slavery.

"Why don't we do something about those poor people? They're in chains!" Tai exclaimed as she saw the people being sold to a very happy looking buyer.

"We can't, we have a mission to carry out and we can't draw attention to ourselves. Anyway, how would we? We haven't enough supplies to trade for them and we're not exactly equipped for battle." Jorlan explained as the slaver drifted away.

"I guess... But if we see another one we have to save them!"

"Maybe when we're better equipped. But for now there's nothing we can do."

"That slaver doesn't seem like someone to bargain with anyway." Mort said from the weapons room. Being a Slug, his telepathic abilities let him see the slaver's thoughts and mentality. He was not a nice man and would not be swayed.

"Good point." Jorlan said as he brought the ship around to the jump beacon. He was just about to enter the co-ordinates of the beacon to the west when he saw a distress signal coming from a beacon north of him. With the fleet slow to mobilise he decided that there would be no harm in helping someone in need.

"I've found a distress signal. We're going to help out." He told his crew

"Glad to see that you still want to help others" Tai said, a condescending tone slipping into her voice. Jorlan sighed as he powered the FTL drive to make the jump, she really didn't like him, did she? It was like she was always looking for an opportunity to put him down or to point out problems with his plans. It was infuriating.

Jorlan sighed, "Why does she hate me Mort?" He said to himself, knowing that the Slug would hear him through is telepathy.

"I can't answer that, and I'm certainly not going into her head to find out." Mort's voice echoed in his head.  
>It was worth a try I guess.<p>

As they made the jump, Jorlan swore he saw one of the merchant ships power up their weapons. Tai was right, they weren't just shipwrights. Good thing that they got out of there when they did, he thought.

When they came out of hyperspace they were greeted with a lone rebel ship drifting alone. It was the source of the distress beacon so there had to be someone on board, right?

"I don't like the looks of that. Is anyone even alive there?" Tai's voice came from the intercom, worry invading her words.

"There has to be. How would the distress beacon be active if there wasn't?"

"I guess"

"Uhh, I'm not feeling any life forms inside." Mort interjected.

"Let's look anyway" Jorlan was determined to check this ship out.

Inside the ship was pitch black, the only light coming from Tai's luminescent body and the flashlights that the crew had brought with them. The crew of the ship was nowhere to be found and the distress beacon had been running for days, according to the console. The ship had already been stripped for scrap and resources so there was no point still being on the ship. As they went to leave Mort caught sight of an unmistakably human skeleton propped up against the door to the cockpit, laser holes visible in its ribs and skull. He showed Jorlan and his face hardened as he inspected the laser holes.

"Dead for a few days I think the carbon dating on the holes isn't fresh but not old enough to be more than a week." He stated flatly. "Let's get back to the ship before we get jumped by them."

"Not funny" Tai scolded.

When they were back on their own ship they breathed a sigh of relief, as the ghost ship floated away from them they noticed that from this angle they could see that the cockpit, along with about half of the ship, was missing.

"Good thing we didn't open any doors I think." Tai exclaimed, shocked at the sight

"You got that right" Jorlan agreed.

They all thought it was best to leave the incident behind them and concentrate on the mission. They left the jump without a word to each other.

**Trapinchh: There's not a lot going on with every single jump so I decided that if a lot of the jumps are going to be quite short then i should include at least 2 or 3 jumps in a chapter. **

**Like it so far? Love the reviews! Hope you keep reading :D**


	4. The Nebula

**Okay, so confession time I guess...  
>This chapter has been done for over a month now, so it's just been sitting on my PC doing nothing while I've been playing Skyrim (which I've been addicted to for the last 2 weeks for some reason). But on the upside me and my girlfriend had a great Valentines day, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste? Oh, and if the quality of this chapter seems off it's because I wrote it during Biology, it's hard playing FTL and writing about it at the same time with a teacher (however lax he may be) walking around... I'll shut up now.<strong>

"Wouldn't the nebula be a good place to jump to?" Tai chimed from the engine room, "Surely the rebels wouldn't be able to see us in there? We'd get a break at least." She said the last part with a slightly happier tone to it than the rest of the sentence.

"Sounds like a good plan, let's do that." Jorlan replied, punching in the coordinates for the beacon that was located in the heart of the nebula. The ship rocked slightly as it turned to face the beacon and Tai heard the FTL Drive power up before the Nisos vanished from the system in a bright flash.

Tai had never really appreciated the view you get from being in hyperspace; beautiful could describe it, but then again it could also be described as quite bland. But as she admired the swirling blue lines interlinking with the white light created by the speed at which they were going, she couldn't help but admire the beauty of hyperspace travel, it really was a wonder, both scientifically and visually.  
>Blue slowly changed to purple as the crew entered the nebula, the sensors giving a warning that the electromagnetic interference would disrupt the waves that were sent out by it, rendering it useless. As they materialised at the beacon, the swirl of the lightspeed tunnel seeming to just end the universe coming back into focus, they saw one lone ship half hidden by the clouds. Jorlan couldn't make out any kind of weaponry but he knew that pirates always had a way of concealing their weapons, so best to be on his toes, he decided. He was hailed by the ship that turned out to be a merchant ship that was looking to trade drone parts for missiles. Having no drone system but a fully functioning missile launcher Jorlan respectfully declined the offer and looked around the nebula, there was nothing but the beacon and the merchant ship in sight and as the sensors weren't functioning he decided to move on to the next jump in the nebula without consulting his crewmates.<p>

Big mistake.

The Nisos materialised in the middle of an ion storm, the reactor of the ship taking damage and being reduced to half power until they were out of the storm. Lying in wait was an automated rebel scout, seemingly unaffected by the ion storm, it moved in to attack.  
>"We have a hostile! Mort! Power up the weapons!" Jorlan commanded, forcing the engines, which at the moment were only powered by Tai's innate ability to power systems, to circle around the scout, weapons trained on it as they charged. Moments of silence passed. Target locked. Then suddenly a missile burst forth from the Nisos before the scout could react and impacted into the hull of the weapons system, damaging but not disabling the single laser that protruded from the plates of the robot. Its laser only managing to overload the shields but not do any actual damage to the ship or its crew. The silence once again dominated the battlefield as the weapons charged on both sides. Then the battle lit up again as both sides discharged, the scout's weapons still not managing to break through to the hull of the Nisos, while it pounded the scout with its barrage. Then a missile was fired from the crew and when it hit the scout small explosions racked the ship, tearing it apart. The lights from the cockpit fading and the machine becoming dormant in its pieces.<p>

"That seemed too easy" Mort muttered, his voice layered with distrust.

"I know, stay on your guard" Jorlan replied, keeping the weapons charged in case another rebel came from the clouds, but none came. By the time the group came to leave the beacon and the nebula the remains of the scout had been obscured by the clouds, being lost into the void of purple.

**Trappinch: with the last chapter I met a derelict vessel and nothing else happened, so i just took some creative license with it, since nothing else was going to happen**

**Jacabo136: Thank you! I spent about two weeks trying to set the scene for the story, the characters weren't really hard as they're stock names, but the President has a secret in his name, try and find it! ;)**

**Until next time!**


End file.
